Under the Ring interview with Shawn Michaels

Shawn Michaels is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Laid back and quick with a story, whether it was for aspiring wrestlers or one of the many fans who showed up to his autograph signing at Hudson Valley Marketplace on Sunday, Michaels is at peace with where he is in life.

Michaels agreed to a brief interview on short notice. Special thanks to the event’s sponsors, Northeast Wrestling and Collector’s Realm for their accommodation. You can follow Shawn Michaels on Twitter here and read about his show “Shawn Michaels MacMillan River Adventures” on The Outdoor Channel here

Phil Strum: First of all, how are you enjoying retirement?

Shawn Michaels: I’m enjoying it immensely. It works for me. I’m a lazy person by nature, so retirement is right up my alley. I would have done it sooner, obviously, but apparently you have to work before you retire, so it would have been in my best interest to get that out of the way. I’m enjoying it very much.

PS: You sort of retired twice, in a way, because you stopped wrestling for four years. I went to the show where you wrestled Triple H at SummerSlam at Nassau Coliseum. At that point, everyone thought this was the last time we’re going to see Shawn Michaels. Then, you went on almost a decade-long run of amazing matches and amazing performances. What was that like to have that come back?

SM: It was a gift. The first — I never said I retired the first time. I guess, in my mind, retirement is when you leave on your own terms. The first one, being told I was never going to wrestle again as the result of a back injury, obviously that’s not the way you envision your career ending. Having dealt with that and gone through it and having the opportunity for a second chance, and that the second chance, as you say, being almost a decade, was at first, honestly as much of a shock to me as it was to everybody else. The genuine intention was to come back for one match and sort of see how everything did. To honestly feel like, holy cow, I feel like I can do what I used to do. I went with that until I felt that the peace within me that I could walk away again and it would be on my terms, my timing and all those things you wish and you envision being like. I got the opportunity to do that.

PS: And two great matches with The Undertaker at WrestleMania.

SM: I can’t think of a better way. I know a lot of people’s natural thinking think like winning matches would be the way, but for me, obviously it’s more about performance and quality of the matches as a whole. I don’t know if I could have ended it on any higher note than the way that I did.

PS: You probably can’t have a better moniker as a wrestler than to be “Mr. WrestleMania,” to be the guy that has the best matches on WrestleMania because that’s when you want to be at your best.

SM: Yeah. Like so many of my names, they’re just things that I spit out of my mouth on TV during a promo. For, over time, people to recognize you as ‘I think you have every right to call yourself that guy because you do xyz.’ That’s always flattering. That’s never the motivation. The motivation is always just to sound cool on a promo when I’m saying stuff. To sort of be labeled the guy who has the quality of matches at the right time in the right place is not a bad reputation to have.

Some local pro wrestlers sit under Shawn Michaels' learning tree.

PS: I noticed you talking to some of the younger aspiring wrestlers here. How much has breaking into the business changed since you broke in back in the 80s in Texas, Central States, AWA?

SM: That’s what we were talking about. It’s changed a great deal. As it should. Everything evolves. It has changed a bunch. People can see it from different perspectives. Some say positive. Some say negative. The business itself does far more for the guys who are in it than it ever has. From that perspective, I think it’s positive. I think, like everything in life, you, as the individual, have to adjust. You’ve got to make the most out of the situation you have. That’s obviously what you want to try to tell young talent. It doesn’t matter what kind of job you’re in. In any situation in life, life is this way and it’s never going to be fair. What are you going to do about that? How are you going to best arm yourself with the tools you need to be successful in this life or in this business?

PS: Any fun memories of coming to Poughkeepsie? I know you’ve spent a lot of time here.

SM: It’s funny. The biggest memory I have of Poughkeepsie is the parking. There’s just that one little line in the back of the building. We all had to line up. If a guy got behind you and you were on early, you weren’t going anywhere. You could be first or second match and you’d have to stay there until the last match because you had four cars behind you.

That, and the dressing room there. That was one of the buildings that, in your mind, you envision your world championship being awesome. This is one of the first places I came after being champion for the first time and going on last and then, going into the shower and the shower just being full of everything not good. I thought to myself, you know, I thought being champion would be different. Good memories.